Unemployed and Homeless

Another week, another adventure! This week has been relaxing, exciting, and pretty much planned by the seat of our pants. :)

No Program
On Monday I was at upper camp in the dinning with some of the girls using the internet because there still wasn't power for our housing. Upper camp was being run on a generator so that was okay. While we were there we got a phone call telling us that program was cancelled for the week. This was exciting for us and a smart decision for the the admin. We were all happy and started to think of what we were going to do with our week, relax, see if work would pay us to do projects...etc.
No Water
Then a little while later we got another phone call telling us that the forest rangers have advised us to evacuate the mountain, the water is now contaminated. What?! As we found out later one of the filter systems runs on electricity and so it has not been working and therefore the water is contaminated. hmmm....now it gets interesting. I had texted my mom with both messages right after we had gotten each call and now she was starting to get concerned.
Getting Out
The few of us that were in the dinning hall went back down to lower camp (where I live) and started to figure out how people were going to get off the mountain and where they were going to go. The first thing that needed to be done is we needed to start digging out peoples cars so they could actually leave. This was quite a challenge with the cars being burried under four feet of snow. :) It was a struggle for some and a very funny sight to see people start to dig in snow was at even level with their windshield. :) After about 2.5 hours of shoveling with many helping hands we were able to get out the cars that were needed and put on some snow chains. Now where too? :)
As we were shoveling we made many plans. We thought of San Fransisco, Texas, Minnesota, Utah, Arizona, Mexico, Los Vegas... the list was long. We just figured that since we had the week off we might as well do something cool with it! We couldn't make a decision quick enough so we just packed a little bit of everything and went to figure it out at Kelly's house in Huntington Beach. That was a great decision because Kelly has a hot tub. So to unwind from a heck tick week and a crazy day we had maragritas in the hot tub and planned the rest of the week.
We decided that we were going to go to Surprise, Arizona (just west of Phoniex) to stay with my friend Alan's parents. They live in a retirement community and Alan said it would just make their day if we came to visit. :)
Arizona it is!
After about 7 hours of driving we pulled in to Alan's place. It was later in the evening, but his parents had waited to have dinner with us when we got there. Every meal they made for us was great! I think they really like to cook and cooking for nine instead of two is more fun. :) That night we have Chinese noodles and then it was hamburgers on the grill (sorry to make you Minnesotans jealous) and then porkchops. They made sure we ate well all week!
Our typical day Arizona went like this, Kelly would wake up to sit on their patio to bird at about 8:30 in the morning. Then I would join her shortly after to read. Then Alan's parents would get up to start breakfast and would have coffee for us soon. Then most of the others would get up and come out to the patio to relax in the morning sun until breakfast. Then Brittani would wake up just before we were going to eat. Our mornings on the patio were my favorite part. It was so relaxing and enjoyable and his parents spoiled us with their hospitality. :)
Then we would find something to do with ourselves for the day. (Which I'll get to in a minute.) Once we got down with our day we would come back and have a wonderful dinner with Alan's parents. We would usually sit around and talk for a long while after dinner. Then we usually would put in a movie and fall asleep to wake up to the Arizona sunshine again the next morning.
Arizona Hiking
During the day we did a variety of things. The first day we went hiking in the White Tanks. It was about a seven mile hike through the mountains to some fresh water near the canons. It was great! Everything was so lush thanks to all the rain the week before. We all had a great time and it was so nice to be outside and not have to be layered in winter gear. :)
Frisbee!
The next day we went to find a field to run around and play frisbee. It was so much fun! Alan, Drew and I knew how to play so we spread ourselves out and taught the others. It was really fun to be playing again!
Me on TV
Just before we were going to quit a guy came up to us. He asked if we wouldn't mind coming and playing in the background of his shot. He was shooting a scene for a new tv show that is on the WE network called Sunshine Days. It will air some sometime in April. The shot was two old men talking on a park bench and the wanted some active people in the background. It was pretty funny and we werent' really sure what were supposed to do. So if you happen to be watching the WE network and see a girl playing frisbee in the background that's probably me. :)
Swimming
After getting all worked up from frisbee we decided to go to Alan's parents' work out facility. When got there we were probably the youngest group by about 20 years. :) Some people wanted to use the machines, others wanted to hit the pool. I wanted to do a few laps and then relax in the hot tub for a while. It was a great day spent doing all things I like to do, frisbee and swimming. :)
Back to Work we go... :(
We left Arizona yesterday and are now back in Huntington Beach. We had a great dinner with Kelly's family and today the plan is to go to church, run some arrons, and go see Avenue Q. Kelly's family is going to go and so a few of us decided to stay later and see it with them. It should be fun and the it's back up the mountain.

The status with work is that we do have program next week. They are working on the power and the water but until those are fixed we will be running on generators with propaine and drinking bottled water. (Yes, we are an environmental school :) ) Looks like it'll be another interesting week ahead. I'll let you know how things go and I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as I can load them. That's all for now! Talk to you soon! Miss you lots! Love you all!

Snow, snow and more snow!

It has been a while since I've last posted. To put it into a few sentences catch you all up, here we go. I went home, had Christmas, saw wonderful people, and flew back to California to find myself in more snow than there was in Minnesota!

Since I've been back we've had two weeks of program and it's been interesting for both. The first week I was over at our other site, Edwards and had to adjust to how they run things over there. It was good and the weather was much warmer than in Minnesota. :)
Then John was here again for work so we spent the weekend together. We went camping and kayaking around Catalina Island. It was great and I promise I'll blog about that as soon as I get pictures. They are in the mail. :)

California in alert!
During this time California has been under great stress if you haven't heard on the news. I'm in no harm but feel for those who are down the mountain. California has been dumped with feet of rain while we have been getting snow which means that there have been reports of flash floods and mud slides. Not good!

Last week- Snow!
Than this last week was to put it lightly, crazy. We had more snow than I have seen in years and work harder than ever! Let me know not just tell you about it but show you so you can understand fully. It was unforgettable and epic!

The students came up on Tuesday and it basically snowed from that day until Saturday with very little let up! We now have a total of at least 4 feet of snow! This was amazing, fun, beautiful, and frustrating.

All Dressed Up-
One thing that I was glad about was that I had all the right gear for the weather thanks to some awesome Christmas gifts and a purchase at the Village. This is me sporting all my gear! I'm wearing my new boots from my parents which are super warm and keep my feet dry! I also have my new mittens which I got from Carolyn that are sweet for teacher and actually keep my fingers pretty warm! Thanks guys! Then the crazy colors that I have on my legs are my $3 gaitors I bought at the Village. They are great for tromping in really deep snow! Don't I look amazing!

My Field Group-
I was working field last week and so we got to do a lot of playing in the snow with the kids. We went sledding and made snow men and built shelters. It was really fun! The kids had a great time and couldn't believe how much snow just kept coming. Here are a few pictures of my group.

One morning we had a competition between the field groups to see who could make the biggest snow ball. Here is my group working on their ball.
After they made the snow ball we decided to make it into a snowman but instead of putting on a head they took turns putting in their head. :) This is Angelia, she was really sweet.

This is a picture my students sporting our ever lovely "Green Gear." When the students don't come with the proper gear we give them this green gear which we get from the military. It is not fancy and not really made for winter or snow, but it is water proof which keeps them dry which keeps them warm. All of the gear is really made for adults so it never fits them properly and they usually hate to wear it but if they want to play in the snow they have to be dressed right. :) They look so cute! This is Natalie, Emily, and Brenda.

This is the dining hall all covered with snow!


Lots of Snow-
Every morning I woke up to walk to work there was more and more snow. It was crazy! This is the from morning Jessica and I woke up having to push our door open from the snow and when we had to shovel our way to get to the bathroom. It was actually really pretty!


On our way to work we passed the cars which were buried in snow. The humps are the cars. :) Most of us spent the day today shoveling the off. Ange said it was weird to be standing at the same height as the hood of her car and to have to climb down into the drivers side door!

The amount of snow has really taken a tole on the trees. They have gotten so heavy that they've bent over like this one which sadly snapped yesterday because it just couldn't take it. :(

This is a picture of my cabin with the snow up to the windowsill! Crazy! We get around by following the snow maze from place to place. :)


An Extra Night and Walking the Students Out-
It has only happened one other time in the history of High Trails that the students have had to stay an extra day. It happened this week! The high to get up to the mountain was closed because of all the snow and the plows weren't going to be able to clear it fast enough. Many of the students were really sad when Chris made the announcement and the staff wasn't too excited either. We thankfully had enough food and a generator to keep camp running. We've been out of power since Thursday.

We made some adjustment to our program and developed some plans to entertain the kids until the highway was clear. We played bunch of games and played in the snow a lot. At night we all pitched in to perform many skits to make the kids laugh and have a good time. It was great for us and them. I'm pretty thankful to work with the staff that I do where we can turn a bad situation into a fun and memorable time. It was hard but really a lot of fun!

Finally on Saturday we could get the kids packed up for the second time and get them ready to go home. The highway was open only for our buses but the only problem was that the buses couldn't drive on camp road which ment we had to walk all of the students out to the buses. In the morning while I was with the kids the other staff was loading and unloading luggage into trucks to drive to the buses. Then when that was done we exicuited the evacuation drill. This is where we line the field groups up end to end to make one long line of kids. There were about 150 of them and it was basically a parade of kids. We walked all the way to the highway in 45 mins. It was impressive!

This a picture of the road we walked on with the kids.

The walk was actually really pretty and we got to see some beautiful sights. It made me say, "Wow! I live here!!!"

We finally waved good bye to the buses from the snow banks of the highway. It was pretty funny! This is Drew expressing how crazy this whole week has been!

Then to get home we all squished into the the back of trucks for a bumpy ride. This is Kelly and me.

So it was one memorable week which makes for great stories to tell and we will remember it forever. My job is fun, crazy, and unpredictable which makes it so awesome! Work hard, Play harder!